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Saturday, May 18 2024

NEWS:

Tomorrow is our last zoom huddle for the summer at 10. All welcome!

Wed Bread ministry at 10-12

***Note: Wed night huddles are done for the summer (at least for now) Family Ministry will be doing monthly activities beginning in June. The adults may do an activity monthly outside the building or begin regathering of we air condition? Interested in helping to plan or lead something? Contact Pastor Don.

Sat 10-1 Clothing Closet (only a few left before summer break) Needed leaders and volunteers for Clothing and Bread Ministries. Contact Sarah, Don or Gina

Mark you calendars:

We have received a very generous offer of $10,000. to be used to air condition the fellowship hall. That leaves $5500.-6,000. for us to fund. We will have a congregational discussion and vote Sun June 2nd after worship. (You must be a member in good standing to vote)

Sun June 9th, 1030 am: Church Picnic with Worship at Community Park

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Good Morning Unique, Custom Made, Healthy, Sufficient-in-Christ, Servants of Our Creator! I just can't ever thank God enough for making me, who I am and for saving, redeeming, healing, gifting, filling, empowering, helping and sending me to go live and love like Jesus for such a time as this! Just meditate on that awhile. And God places us right where He wants us and even sends others to us for our help and encouragement  and for us to help and encourage. How cool. He placed us in His Body. We all matter and have a part to play and He's using us as we submit and allow Him to mold, shape and use us. What an awesome God! And how cool is it that we get to do these things just as we are! As we do, we grow to be more like Jesus, into our fuller potential and experience God's greater things for us! Man! I could just stop right here and have a boatload to ponder and praise for today! How about you? What's God doing in, through and around you? (or wanting to?) How about others He has for us to partner with? Are you getting any dreams, visions or ideas of things God may want us to plan and do? (Please share those with us!). God has some amazing things for you and us to discover and plan and then do. PTL!

Check out our devos below that thread through all of this. Be still and know. Meditate as you go. Keep your eyes and ears open for what God is doing that He wants you to join in with Him. Keep sharing those stories and ideas! May all we think, say, plan and do bring great glory to our Father in heaven! May His Kingdom come and will be done in the heavenlies and in, through and around us. May we incarnate Jesus and His love, just as we are, as we go live and love like Jesus. And may we grow to be more like Jesus and do more of the things He planned for us from long ago! I can't wait to see all the new things He is readying for us as we learn to die to self, take up cross daily and follow Jesus! Amen! 

God is calling you by name, even singing over you and He has given us His Word, His Living Word, the Bible to inform, refresh and guide us to His best plans! He makes us sufficient and use the unexpected to impact the world. He is redeeming and restoring all the enemy has stolen and work with us to lead us to great spiritual, physical, emotional, financial health and stewardship. We are the Light of the world as we follow God's Light and Love. Our God ROCKS! Amen!

UR: Unique Composition

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. - Psalm 119:105 (KJV)

Several weeks ago, my wife and I went to a piano concert held at a local music hall. The pianist was a young professional who had received the second award at the International Chopin Piano Competition held a few years ago. We were deeply impressed and listened to the beauty of the melodies of Chopin and Beethoven.

When I looked closely at the pianist following his musical score carefully, I likened it to the relationship between God and humankind. God created a special, unique composition for each of us, and we are expected to play the music carefully. The sheet music can be found in the Bible. If we neglect the written notes, we may fumble through life without attaining the joy God has created for us all. Encouraged and guided by God’s words in scripture, our lives will play the songs of love and grace God wrote for us.

TODAY'S PRAYER

Thank you, Lord, that you have composed special music for each of us. As we study your word in scripture, help us to learn and play our songs to glorify your name. Amen.ODB:

A Solitary Voice

As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what my God says. 2 Chronicles 18:13

READ 2 Chronicles 18:9-16

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After the Paris Peace Conference that concluded World War I, French Marshall Ferdinand Foch bitterly observed, “This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.” Foch’s view contradicted the popular opinion that the horrifying conflict would be the “war to end all wars.” Twenty years and two months later, World War II erupted. Foch was right.

Long ago, Micaiah, the lone true prophet of God present at the time, consistently prophesied dire military results for Israel (2 Chronicles 18:7). In contrast, four hundred of King Ahab’s false prophets foretold victory: “Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king,” a court official told Micaiah. “Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably” (v. 12).

Micaiah responded, “I can tell him only what my God says” (v. 13). He prophesied how Israel would be “scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd” (v. 16). Micaiah was right. The Arameans killed Ahab and his army fled (vv. 33-34; 1 Kings 22:35-36).

Like Micaiah, we who follow Jesus share a message that contradicts popular opinion. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Many don’t like that message because it seems harshly narrow. Too exclusive, people say. Yet Christ brings a comforting message that’s inclusive. He welcomes everyone who turns to Him. 

By Tim Gustafson

REFLECT & PRAY

When the Spirit leads you to say or do something, how will you do so in love? When have your own assumptions needed to be challenged by God?

Father, please give me the wisdom to discern Your truth. 

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

A similar battle between true and false prophets that’s recorded in 2 Chronicles 18 is also seen in Jeremiah 27-28. The prophet Jeremiah is the solitary voice for truth amid a chorus of false hope (27:9-15) and confronts the lies of the false prophet Hananiah (ch. 28).

In the New Testament, Paul also warned against false prophets and of the day when people “will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3). Every believer in Jesus needs to be discerning and boldly speak truth, even where there are those who itch for something else.

Arthur Jackson

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St. Matthew's EC Church

5th & Ridge Streets
P.O. Box 433
Emmaus, PA 18049
Telephone 610.965.5570
Email: stmattsecemmaus@gmail.com

ABOUT US

We are learning to live and love like Jesus. 

We are working on becoming who we were created to be and doing our custom made purposes well. 

We are part of the Evangelical Congregational Church http://www.eccenter.com/

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